GovWire

Ofsted is authorised under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 to carry out directed surveillance in order to prevent or detect a crime. We will only use directed surveillance if we cannot obtain the necessary information in any other way.

Directed surveillance means surveillance that is:

• covert, but not intrusive
• carried out for the purposes of a specific investigation or operation related to the preventing or detecting of crime
• likely to result in the obtaining of private information about a person or persons
• carried out in a way that is premeditated, rather than, for example, the chance observations of an inspector attending a setting to carry out an inspection

This policy sets out our legal powers, our authorisation process, the records we keep and how we will retain any evidence.